Venezuela begins Chavez farewell as an era ends

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THE flag-draped coffin of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez was borne through throngs of weeping supporters as a nation bade farewell to the firebrand leftist who led them for 14 years.

Chavez's mother Elena wept over his wooden casket as a band played the national anthem outside his military hospital. Presidential guards with red berets then placed his remains on top of a black hearse, surrounded by flowers.

Chavez's hand-picked successor, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, walked alongside the car through dense crowds, wearing a somber expression and a striking outfit in the color of the national flag.

Chavez' death after a two-year struggle with cancer was a blow to his adoring supporters and the alliance of left-wing Latin American powers, and plunged his oil-rich country into uncertainty as an election is organised.

His body, surrounded by soldiers, was being taken to the military academy that the former paratrooper colonel once called a second home, where he will lie in state until an official ceremony with foreign dignitaries on Friday.

People watched from their apartment windows, others climbed fences to get a better view of the hearse, many held or wore iconic images of Chavez.

The 58-year-old leader succumbed to a respiratory infection on Tuesday. A new election is due to be called within what are sure to be 30 tense days.

Mr Maduro, who tearfully broke the news to the nation that his mentor had lost his battle with cancer, was poised to take over as interim president and to campaign for election as Chavez's chosen successor.

The death brought thousands of Venezuelans to public squares across the nation, weeping and celebrating the life of a divisive figure whose oil-funded socialist revolution delighted the poor and infuriated the wealthy.

Hundreds of people spent the night in front of his hospital, waving Venezuelan flags and chanting "we are all Chavez!" A banner was hung on the hospital fence, reading "Chavez lives, the battle continues!"

"I love him," said Iris Dicuro, 62, who came from the northeastern city of Puerto La Cruz and wore a shirt with the words "Forward Comandante." "I want to bid farewell because he was a good man who gave everything to the poor."

But not everyone in a country divided by Chavez's populist style agreed, with opposition supporters in better off neighborhoods still angry.

"Hate and division was the only thing that he spread," 28-year-old computer programmer Jose Mendoza told AFP in an eastern Caracas opposition bastion.

"They want to make him a martyr. It made me laugh.

"He did a lot of social things, but he could have done much more. He also did a lot of harm because there are no institutions, there is no justice. He mistreated everyone who disagreed with his government."

The armed forces were to fire a 21-gun salute and "there will be a salvo every hour until his burial," Defence Minister Diego Molero said.

Some of Chavez's closest allies had already arrived Wednesday ahead of the state funeral, including Argentina's President Cristina Kirchner, Uruguay's Jose Mujica and Bolivia's Evo Morales.

Mr Maduro said the nation's security forces had been deployed but Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said calm reigned in Venezuela, which was rocked by a short-lived coup against Chavez in 2002.

Venezuela's closest ally, communist Cuba, declared its own mourning period for a leader who helped prop up the island's economy with cheap fuel and cash transfers, and dubbed Chavez a "true son" of revolutionary icon Fidel Castro.

But US President Barack Obama - often a target of Chavez's anti-American scorn - was circumspect, pledging the United States would support the "Venezuelan people" and describing Chavez's passing as a "challenging time."

Shortly before Chavez's death was announced, Maduro expelled two US military attaches and accused Venezuela's enemies of somehow afflicting the leftist with the cancer that eventually killed him.

Chavez was showered with tributes from Latin American leaders and Russia, China and Iran also paid tribute to a man who had cultivated close ties with the bugbears of the West as a way of thumbing his nose at Washington.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Chavez had fallen "martyr" to a "suspect illness," while hailing his close ally for "serving the people of Venezuela and defending human and revolutionary values."

And beleaguered Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad took time off from attempting to crush a revolt against his brutal rule to dub Chavez's death "a great loss for me personally and the Syrian people."

Chavez had checked into the hospital on February 18 for a course of chemotherapy after spending two months in Cuba, where in December he had undergone his fourth round of cancer surgery since June 2011.

A new election could offer another shot at the presidency to Henrique Capriles, the opposition leader who lost to Chavez in October but insisted Tuesday that the two men were "adversaries, but never enemies."

Luis Vicente Leon, director of the polling group Datanalisis, said the government will likely want to hold elections as early as possible "to take advantage electorally of the emotion generated by the president's death."

Chavez died five months after winning re-election, overcoming public frustration over a rising murder rate, regular blackouts and soaring inflation.

He missed his swearing-in for a new six-year term on January 10, but the Supreme Court approved an indefinite delay.

EARLIER

VENEZUELANS began to bid farewell to late President Hugo Chavez, whose body was to lie in state for three days to honour the firebrand leftist who ruled the oil-rich nation for 14 years.

The body of the 58-year-old former paratrooper was to be escorted by a four-horse cortege from the Caracas military hospital where he died from cancer to a military academy he considered his second home.

Venezuela, still deeply divided after an acrimonious election in October, declared a week of national mourning, and a senior minister said a new vote would be called within what are sure to be 30 tense days.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who tearfully broke the news to the nation on Tuesday that his mentor had lost his battle with cancer, was poised to take over as interim president and campaign as Chavez's chosen successor.

The death brought thousands of Venezuelans to public squares across the nation, weeping and celebrating the life of a divisive figure whose oil-funded socialist revolution delighted the poor and infuriated the wealthy.

Hundreds of people spent the night in front of his hospital, waving Venezuelan flags and chanting "we are all Chavez!" A banner was hung the hospital fence, reading "Chavez lives, the battle continues!"

"I love him," said Iris Dicuro, 62, who came from the northeastern city of Puerto La Cruz and wore a shirt with the words "Forward Comandante."

"I want to bid farewell because he was a good man who gave everything to the poor."

Schools were closed and huge crowds were expected along the capital's streets to see his remains taken to the military academy.

The armed forces were to fire a 21-gun salute and "there will be a salvo every hour until his burial," Defence Minister Diego Molero said.

Some of Chavez's closest allies had already arrived ahead of a state funeral on Friday, including Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, Uruguay's Jose Mujica and Bolivia's Evo Morales.

The nation's security forces were deployed following Chavez's death and Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said calm reigned in the nation, which was once rocked by a short-lived coup against Chavez in 2002.

But US President Barack Obama - often a target of Chavez's anti-American scorn - was circumspect, pledging the United States would support the "Venezuelan people" and describing Chavez's passing as a "challenging time."

"As Venezuela begins a new chapter in its history, the United States remains committed to policies that promote democratic principles, the rule of law, and respect for human rights," Mr Obama said.

Shortly before Chavez's death was announced, Mr Maduro expelled two US military attaches and accused Venezuela's enemies of somehow afflicting the leftist with the cancer that eventually killed him.

Chavez was showered with tributes from Latin American leaders, not just his allies but also figures like Brazil's Dilma Rousseff, who hailed him as a "great Latin American" and a "friend of the Brazilian people."

Russia, China and Iran also paid tribute to Chavez, who had cultivated close ties with bugbears of the West as a way of thumbing his nose at Washington.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Chavez had fallen "martyr" to a "suspect illness," while hailing his close ally for "serving the people of Venezuela and defending human and revolutionary values."

Chavez had checked into the hospital on February 18 for a course of chemotherapy after spending two months in Cuba, where in December he had undergone his fourth round of cancer surgery since June 2011.

The once-ubiquitous presence on state television and radio disappeared from public view after he was flown to Cuba on December 10, an unprecedented absence that fueled wave after wave of rumours.

Senior officials had sent mixed signals about the president's health for weeks, while the opposition repeatedly accused the government of lying about his condition. The exact nature and location of his cancer was never revealed.

A new election could offer another shot at the presidency to Henrique Capriles, the opposition leader who lost to Chavez in October but insisted on Tuesday that the two men were "adversaries, but never enemies."

"This is not the time for differences. This is the time for unity, the time for peace," Mr Capriles said.

Luis Vicente Leon, director of the polling group Datanalisis, said the government will likely want to hold elections as early as possible "to take advantage electorally of the emotion generated by the president's death."

Chavez will be mourned by many of the country's once-neglected poor, who revered the self-styled revolutionary for using the country's oil riches to fund popular housing, health, food and education programs.

And like-minded Latin American leaders like Cuba's Raul Castro, Ecuador's Rafael Correa and Bolivia's Mr Morales lost a close friend who used his diplomatic muscle and cheap oil to shore up their rule.

Chavez died five months after winning re-election, overcoming public frustration over a rising murder rate, regular blackouts and soaring inflation.

The opposition had accused Chavez of misusing public funds for his campaign and dominating the airwaves while forcing government workers to attend rallies through intimidation.

He missed his swearing-in for a new six-year term on January 10, but the Supreme Court approved an indefinite delay.

Earlier, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff hailed Chavez as a "great Latin American," describing his death as "an irreparable loss".

Bolivia's socialist President Evo Morales - whose political priorities and style of leadership have drawn deeply from his close ally Chavez - said he was "crushed" by his friend's death.

"We are in pain. We are crushed," Mr Morales said, before adding that the "liberation, not only of the Venezuelan people but also of Latin America's people broadly, must go on."

Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa, another close ally of Chavez, said his death was an "irreparable loss" for all of Latin America, saying Venezuelans would proudly carry on his legacy.

Communist Cuba, which depended economically on Chavez for years and was his main political ally in the region, broke into its regular television programming to announce his death.

Just moments after it opened, a percussion festival was called off as Havana started mourning Chavez, who had helped keep Cuba's crippled economy afloat by supplying it with cut-rate oil.

In Argentina, Vice President Amado Boudou said on Twitter that "all of Latin America" was in mourning.

"One of the best has left us: you will always be with us, Comandante," Mr Boudou said.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, a conservative billionaire, called Chavez a leader who was "deeply committed to Latin America's integration".

However, Human Rights Watch questioned the "authoritarian legacy" of Chavez.

HRW denounced the "dramatic concentration of power and open disregard for basic human rights during his rule since 1999".

"By his second full term in office, the concentration of power and erosion of human rights protections had given the government free rein to intimidate, censor and prosecute Venezuelans who criticised the president or thwarted his political agenda," HRW said.

The NGO denounced Chavez's "assault" on judicial independence and press freedoms, his rejection of human rights scrutiny and his close relationships with "abusive governments" in Iran and Syria and the former Libyan regime.

Earlier, Washington rejected Venezuela's allegations that it was involved in a conspiracy over Chavez, saying claims in Caracas that the United States was somehow behind his cancer were "absurd".

The Pentagon confirmed the expulsion of two Air Force officers from the US embassy in Caracas while the State Department condemned allegations of a plot to undermine Venezuela.

The expulsions were announced after Mr Maduro had accused the country's "historic enemies" of causing Chavez's cancer.

Mr Maduro alleged the expelled US military officers had been seeking out active Venezuelan military officials to obtain information about the armed forces and propose "destabilisation projects".

The Venezuelan government had announced late on Monday (Venezuelan time) Chavez had a "new and severe infection" and a "worsening of respiratory function". Chavez underwent cancer surgery on December 11 in Cuba and suffered "complications" from the surgery.

Hours after the sombre medical bulletin, Mr Maduro held a meeting with the cabinet, military officers and state governors at the presidential palace to "define strategies regarding various projects for the development of our country," according to state-run television.